Playwright, commentator and activist Van Badham is back on the podcast after she joined me in July of 2015.

Since then Van has been a passionate advocate for the re-election of a Labor government and a scathing critic of The Australian Greens. I was keen to dig further into her thinking on that and ask her what she thought went wrong in the 2019 federal election (the answer might surprise you). Van mounts a vigorous defence of Labor’s policies here and explains why she sees it as the major hope for the socialist Left in Australia.

Plus also you will hear her dog barking in the background.

Woahhh how cool you can support this show by becoming a Patron please radical, man! 

I’m doing two previews of ENOUGH at The Bill Murray in London on July 16th & 23rd

Then ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August and the Soho Theatre in September

@vanbadham

Van’s Facebook page

Van’s play Banging Denmark at the Sydney Opera House

Van’s opinion pieces:

Labor’s support for tax cuts is an unfathomable betrayal of principle

Australian Labor led centre-left parties into neoliberalism. Can they lead it out?

Labour has a chance if it replaces Corbyn. Look at Australia in 1983 

Time to hail Hillary Clinton – and face down the testosterone left

How I fell out of love with the Greens: a personal story about the Labor Party

The ALP National Platform 2018

ARTICLE: Van Badham’s defence of Hillary Clinton is insufferable right wing crap by Sarah Garnham

ARTICLE: Van Badham’s defence of Clinton is preposterous by Michael Brull

ARTICLE: It wasn’t Bob Brown who lost the election, it was the Labor Party by James Norman

ARTICLE: How Australia’s Labor Party Lost an Un-Loseable Election by Daniel Lopez

Cause of the Week: The Australian Labor Party (alp.org.au) 

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Josh Bornstein is an employment and IR lawyer at Maurice & Blackburn and the director at the Australia Institute.

He’s been increasingly concerned about the level of control that Australian employers have gained over their employees’ freedom of speech and expression. So when it comes to the case of Israel Falou, he’s been (controversially) outspoken about the legal ramifications for workers if we accept that your boss can fire you for saying the wrong thing.

Here Josh and I take the time to flesh out his argument on this, how one can unequivocally condemn what Falou said but still object to him losing his job and what the implications for this saga might be for anti-discrimination protections moving forward.

Be the change you want to be in the world and support this show by becoming a Patron please

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August and the Soho Theatre in September

@JoshBBornstein

joshbornstein.com.au

ARTICLE: Cricket Australia’s Angela Williamson won’t be the last fired for having an opinion by Josh Bornstein

ARTICLE: Sacked for speaking your mind? Don’t expect the free speech brigade to help by Jason Wilson

ARTICLE: Integrity – it’s all Greek to the hypocrites of the Right by Josh Bornstein

ARTICLE: With Israel Folau the church demands a kind of free speech that keeps gays in the firing line by David Marr

ARTICLE: Everyone Is Wrong About Israel Falou by Lane Sainty

Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas

Cause of the Week: The Centre for Future Work (futurework.org.au)

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Jeremy Poxon is a social security activist and the media officer for the Australian Unemployed Workers Union. His spicy twitter account regularly draws attention to the plight of unemployed and underemployed people in Australia, from those living on Newstart to people on Work for the Dole to folks just trying to survive in the gig economy.

Here Jeremy explains exactly how organising unemployed workers in a union works, why capitalism is antithetical to the idea of (actual) full employment, why Labor’s centrism SUCKS BUTT, what’s involved in a jobs guarantee and what an Australian Green New Deal might look like.

Be the change you want to be in the world and support this show by becoming a Patron please

ENOUGH is on in Collingwood in Melbourne this Friday & Saturday night

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August and the Soho Theatre in September

@jeremypoxon

unemployedworkersunion.com

progress2019.org.au

jobguarantee.org

ARTICLE: Australia Needs A Green New Deal, Not More Centrism by Jeremy Poxon, Jon Piccini and Tash Neenan

ARTICLE: What Good Are Billions of Surplus Dollars When People Are Starving? by Jeremy Poxon

ARTICLE: The demerit system is ruthless social policy, designed to keep the poor powerless by Jeremy Poxon

ARTICLE: Living on Newstart: ‘I don’t eat every day. That saves some money I guess’ by Gay Alcorn

Cause of the Week: The Unemployed Workers Union (unemployedworkersunion.com)

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Something a little bit different for you this week: highlights from a live performance of A Rational Fear at Queensland’s inaugural Climate Week.

There were jokes and songs and facts about the impending climate crisis, featuring myself, Dan Ilic, Melinda Buttle, Steph Tisdell, Lewis Hobba, Prof. Hilary Bambrick and Bridie Connell & Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd. Enjoy.

You can support this show by becoming a Patron which would be very very nice of you

ENOUGH is coming to Newcastle this Friday night

Then Sydney on Saturday night

Then Geelong and Melbourne later in the month

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August and the Soho Theatre in September

@ARationalFear

A Rational Fear on Soundcloud

ARationalFear.substack.com

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Jonathan Green is a veteran journalist and broadcaster who presents at the ABC and edits the literary magazine Meanjin.

He’s been working as a journo since the late 70s so I thought he’d be a good person to reflect on how the political media is serving us in 2019 (hint: it’s not). We talk about exactly why Jonathan thinks politics is “bollocks”, the corrosive influence of the Murdoch media empire and whether there’s anything to do about it, the smallness of the “Lucky Country” and the challenges ahead for progressive politics.

If you like this show and can support a wittle bit please do so by becoming a Patron

ENOUGH is coming to Newcastle, Geelong, Sydney & Melbourne

A Rational Fear is coming to Brisbane for Climate Week this Thursday June 6th

I’ll be back in Brisbane on Sunday June 30th for the MELT Gala

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August

@GreenJ

meanjin.com.au

Jonathan Green on ABC RN

ARTICLE: ‘Prefer to battle News Corp than Scott Morrison’: Michael Miller slams Labor by Jennifer Duke

ARTICLE: What counts as rich now? by Mike Seccombe

Cause of the Week: The Smith Family’s Sponsor-A-Child Program (thesmithfamily.com.au)

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He’s back! The socialist journalist, author, broadcaster and activist Jeff Sparrow is back to help make sense of the election result.

Hear what Jeff makes of the idea that the ALP should return to the “sensible centre”, how unconvincing Bill Shorten was as a progressive leader, the radical response that the climate crisis requires, where to next for the #StopAdani campaign, the fate of The Greens and whether class warfare is really over (hint: it’s not).

You can support the show by becoming a Patron yes please thanks

ENOUGH is coming to Newcastle, Geelong, Sydney & Melbourne

A Rational Fear is coming to Brisbane for Climate Week on Thursday June 6th

I’ll be back in Brisbane on Sunday June 30th for the MELT Gala

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August

@jeff_sparrow

Jeff’s articles: Where to now for the Left? 

What went wrong for Labor on climate 

The environment vs jobs? We have been in this fight before

Jeff’s book Trigger Warnings: Political Correctness & The Rise of the Right

ARTICLE: Unions’ pro-Labor electoral strategy a failure by Tom Bramble 

ARTICLE: Tony Burke floats Green New Deal-style approach to Labor’s climate policy

ARTICLE: Anthony Albanese to travel to Queensland on first day as Labor leader

ARTICLE: Trumpism is taking over the world and the Left is to blame by Bret Stephens

Cause of the Week: BDS Australia (bdsaustralia.net.au)

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Gideon Rozner is a Liberal Party member and the director of policy at free market think tank The Institute of Public Affairs. He loves markets and freedom and shit like that.

I’d booked this discussion in prior to the weekend’s election results which for SOME FUCKING BONKERS reason saw the Morrison government re-elected. Gideon was very pleased with the result and in this conversation we discuss what he think happened, what Morrison will actually do, his climate scepticism, “class warfare”, abolishing the Fair Work Act and how much money he won by betting on the election.

You can support the show by becoming a Patron yes please thanks

ENOUGH is coming to Newcastle, Geelong, Sydney & Melbourne

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August

@GideonCRozner

Gideon’s profile on The IPA website

20 Policies to Fix Australia by The IPA

Gideon talks Peter Ridd on Sky News Outsiders

ARTICLE: Climate sceptics see a conspiracy in Australia’s record-breaking heat by Graham Readfearn

ARTICLE: Australian Labor’s Miliband Moment by Osmond Chiu

ARTICLE: We live in anti-political times by Elizabeth Humphrys

Cause of the Week: Give money to homeless people (or alternatively support Justice Connect’s Homeless Law programs, justiceconnect.org.au)

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Singapore-based fund manager Alex Turnbull is the son of the ousted PM Malcolm and self-described “activist in most senses of the word”.

Since the leadership coup in August of last year, Alex has been publicly scathing of the state of the Liberal Party and has actively campaigned to get centrist independents elected in traditionally safe Liberal seats. Alex joined me via Skype to talk with me about about his new approach to politics and public debate, what the heck the “sensible centre” really means and whether or not his dad ever watched my TV show.

You can support the show by becoming a Patron, don’t-ya-know

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August

I’m hosting the Smokestack Comedy Gala is on at Monash University this Friday night

Please support the Refugee Council’s Choose Humane campaign

@alexbhturnbull

ARTICLE: Alex Turnbull, former PM’s son, names ‘top 5 craziest Liberals’

ARTICLE: Alex Turnbull takes aim at News Corp

ARTICLE: Alex Turnbull puts his money where his non-Liberal mouth is

Dirty Power: Big Coal’s network of influence over the Coalition government by Greenpeace

Cause of the Week: Carbon Tracker (carbontracker.org) 

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Richard Di Natale is a Senator for Victoria and leader of the Australian Greens. His seat isn’t up this election but he is out there campaigning hard for the Greens to retain their positions in the Senate and potentially pick up some lower house seats too.

In this conversation we covered a lot, from Richard’s thoughts on the egging of the PM to the ghosts of social media past sinking young people’s political careers to his party’s political fortunes to capitalism to MDMA. But it’s clear that the Greens’ and Richard’s passion is focussed on the existential threat of climate change (as you’d expect). Here Richard outlines the importance of the battle against Adani, the bizarre coal culture war and what a just transition for coal miners might actually look like.

You can support the show by becoming a Patron, don’t-ya-know

ENOUGH is on at the Sydney Comedy Festival for 4 shows only this week! WOW!

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August

@RichardDiNatale

richard-di-natale.greensmps.org.au

Richard’s speech at the National Press Club

The Greens’ election platform (read it please)

350.org’s documentary Accelerate Climate Action 

ARTICLE: Whither the Greens? How a reckoning looms for a party fighting to hang on by Paddy Manning

ARTICLE: What is next for the Australian Greens? by Martin McKenzie-Murray

ARTICLE: I’m willing to go to jail to stop Adani and save our beloved country. Will you stand with me? by Richard Flanagan

Cause of the Week: The Australian Greens (greens.org.au)

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My childhood friend Alex Dyson is a very nice and very funny man who I got to host the triple j breakfast show with for four years.

Now, somewhat insanely, he is running as an independent candidate in our home seat of Wannon in south-west Victoria. It’s a seat that’s been held by the Liberals for 64 years and is currently held by Minister for Education Dan Tehan by a margin of 10%.

We drank a lot of wine, watched the godawful Leaders’ Debate and had a long and fun and slightly-tipsy chat about his politics, why he thinks it’s worth running in a safe seat, political ideology and Lupe Fiasco. We laughed, we reminisced, we respectfully disagreed, we danced. Enjoy!

Become a Patron of the show (please) yummy money yum yum

ENOUGH is coming to Sydney Comedy Festival for 4 shows only next week

ENOUGH is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August

@alexdyson

Alex’s very good instagram

ARTICLE: Legit Political Candidate Alex “Sesh Gremlin” Dyson Revealed Why He’s Running

PM Julia Gillard Addresses the End of the World

Cause of the Week: Dangerous Females (dangerousfemales.com.au) 

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